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 The Theatreguide.London Review

Sound Of The Underground
Royal Court Theatre    January - February 2023

Travis Alabanza’s Sound of the Underground, described by the Royal Court Theatre as 'Part-play, part-raucous cabaret, part-workers’ manifesto,' was co-created with director Debbie Hannon, with short performance pieces in the second half of the show created by individual cast members.

It is often funny with a good deal of social commentary. As performer Le Grand says, 'It’s lovely for us cross-dressing, queer delinquents to be above the ground for once. And to be here in front of you, at this fine, royal establishment.'

Thanking the Royal Court and its donors, Wet Met tells us they won’t think too hard 'about where the money came from and if we see any blood on our ten- pound note, we will simply pretend it’s nail varnish.'

Since one of the themes of the evening is the difficulties of work including poor wages, they mention that the Royal Court pays each of them just £75 a performance, reason enough for them to bring collection buckets and QR codes round for us to donate what we can.

The show is an entertaining medley of song, dance, reflections, cabaret and humour. It can feel structurally and politically fragmented. There is no single narrative to follow and that can make the one-hundred and fifty minutes running time seem much longer.

But dip into it at any time and you will find stuff worth hearing or seeing.

The show is in four sections. The first is an introduction to each cast member. The second is a satirical play set in a plush grey kitchen where a character arrives in matching grey suit to what is planned to be a union meeting.

On the agenda is the proposed killing of the American drag artist Ru Paul, who they regard as symbolic of those changing drag from 'rule-defying, gender-bending, punk protest' to something 'sanitised, sanctioned and following a rule book that we didn’t set.'

In the third section of the performance, the cast lip-sync to their pre-recorded accounts of drag artists who work for very little money, sometimes become homeless and often suffer terrible prejudice.

The host Sue Gives a Fuck even includes some Queer history of, for instance, an infamous police raid in the 18th Century of Mother Clapp's Molly House.

'Forty people were arrested and three were hung… The police didn’t apologise but they do wear a rainbow flag in the Pride march so I guess that’s progress. They just want to be involved, don’t they?'

In a very moving speech in the final section Chiyu describes just how isolating prejudice can feel. The sequence begins as a very exciting musical dance which has most of the audience looking keen to join in.

Suddenly the music stops and Chiyu, visibly upset, says the applause makes the performance feel right but 'then you go home  and I go home too' only to get attacked on the  way. 'Where the fuck is everyone when we actually need you? What the fuck are you doing to keep us actually here?'

Keith McKenna